When Denise Jones moved into her new apartment in a south Norfolk village in October last year, little did she know that she would be waiting at least eight months for a telephone line to be installed.

To make matters worse, her mobile telephone signal can only be picked up in one upstairs room of her home on the Maltings development in Ditchingham, leaving her without any reliable means to contact anyone.

Mrs Jones said: 'Before we moved in, we ordered the line from BT and were told it would be installed on October 28.

'Then I was told they couldn't do it because there were no more lines and they needed to dig up a road which meant they had to apply for permission to close it.'

Mrs Jones said the situation was particularly worrying for her husband: 'He is diabetic and if I am not here and he has a problem there is no way for him to alert anyone.

'There is an elderly lady who lives here and she has also been trying to get a line. We don't have anywhere else to go.'

As the months went on, Mrs Jones said she was told that permission for the road closure had been refused by Norfolk County Council, which said this was not the case,

The council said: 'The frustration of people living in this new development is entirely understandable, but Norfolk County Council has not delayed or refused an application to work in the highway, because no such application has been received from BT.

'Once an application has been made the council will be able to process it in the normal way.'

Mrs Jones said: 'The neighbour who lives five metres across the hall moved in six weeks ago and was linked up straight away.

'I asked BT how this could be and they then said I was on the wrong router and the lines came from a different router – I am finding it really hard to believe.

'There are supposed to be 108 units and about half have been built. If we are being told there are not enough phone lines, what about the new people who are yet to move in.'

Mrs Jones has now been told that work could start in May.

BT said: 'Openreach engineers need to carry our significant underground engineering works to this location to increase the capacity to the area.

'This work will need a road closure to allow safe access and Openreach are working to get the necessary permissions and to have that arranged.

'Openreach would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused whilst this is being done.

'They will keep relevant service providers updated on progress to allow them to update their customers.'

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